The attraction of front projectors is undeniable: they are compact, can be set up quickly (if they are DLP or LCD types), and do not dominate a room. The market for these as presentation devices (your “Powerpoint partner”) has opened up an even bigger market for more affordable home theatre display devices. The first of these reviewed in these pages came from Epson (Summer/Fall 2002, Vol. 21 #2), the TW100 LCD type. We will play with more projectors over coming months.

The RD-JT41 boasts SVGA resolution, 800 X 600 lines, with a claimed brightness of 2000 ANSI lumens, and a contrast ratio of 600:1. It is quite light at 3.2 kilograms (7 lbs). Its sister projector, the RD-JT40 uses the more recent DLP chip that provides 1028 X 768 resolution, but costs quite a bit more.

Here we have a device that LG calls in its product literature, “a versatile and cost effective business solution.” As a home theatre product, however, it carries its table-top pedigree by firing its image at a quite steep upward angle, and may therefore present some mounting problems at home. I put a video tape under the projector’s rear to bring it down to the height of my screen. In my room I was able to project about an 80″ picture (measured diagonally) with a distance of about 12′ from projector to screen.

There are several inputs, RGB via a D-sub 15-pin female connector, Component RCAs, S-Video, and Composite RCAs. It also has mini-jack and RCA audio inputs for its small internal speaker, as well as outputs to computer (DB-15), and jacks for USB mouse and RS-232 control. The RD-JT41 also has a remote control that can be fired at the screen.

Some of the features include an Auto setup mode, freeze frame, and compatibility with HD sources, though resolution is limited to its native capabilitiy. Nonetheless, I was impressed by both picture sharpness and colour quality and accuracy with both DVD and HDTV sources. The picture is indeed bright and vivid, with a bit of a screen or grid effect visible in white areas of the picture. However, this was less noticeable than what I saw with the Epson, the picture also brighter, with better contrast; though the LCD TW100 claimed higher resolution, the LG has fewer visible artifacts and displays a much more natural-looking picture.